Better than a free website builder

What are the limitations of free website builders?

Free website builder templates

Templates are a great way to give your website consistency and style. If you're a beginner with no prior experience in programming or web design, templates are crucial to making sure your site is attractive and has a clear layout.

If you find one that suits your needs perfectly, then it makes sense to use it. But unfortunately, they don't offer a great degree of flexibility, and they won't be exclusive to your site. So if you have an exact idea in mind but lack the programming and web design skills to make it a reality, or if you just want a nice, smart design that is unique to your brand, then a free website builder template probably isn't the answer.

Email capability
Hosting functions

Free website builders with email capability

When setting up your company website, you might want to have your own, domain-specific email address incorporated into it. For example, if you were to acquire the domain name 'bestcars.com', then it can add an extra level of professionalism to have emails for all your employees and customer services using this domain name (for instance: miranda@bestcars.com or info@bestcars.com), rather than using a centralized email address domain. Unfortunately, free website builders don't offer this email address feature free of charge.

In fact, many free website builders don't offer an integrated email service as part of their basic package, meaning that you'll need to either use plugins to integrate an email function yourself, or run your email service externally from a separate place entirely.

Free website builders and hosting

Free website builders let you create a simple, attractive website easily without prior experience. But do they always offer hosting services? The answer, unfortunately, is no: In most cases, free providers don't offer hosting as part of their basic package. Web hosting requires expensive hardware, which means it's often not financially viable to carry out yourself. To have hosting included as part of your free website builder package will come at an cost. The other option is to source an external web hosting provider independently.

Some free website builders do in fact offer website hosting as part of their free package. But this normally means that other features are limited. The free basic package may come with hosting, but doesn't offer a custom domain name, SEO tools, additional users, or an eCommerce function. Other free website builders that offer hosting may place other restrictions, like removing the sign-up function for site visitors, stopping offline page maintenance, not offering SSL security, or blocking certain payment functions, like PayPal or credit cards.

Lastly, some free website builders that offer hosting run ads on your site. This is their way of funding their company to be able to offer you a free website builder – and you'll typically see no commission for these ads, regardless of how well your website performs.

Technical limitations to free website builders

What do I need to consider?

Free website builders usually come with certain technical limitations that can impact creativity, design flexibility, security, and general functionality. Free website builders often limit certain technical requirements, like CSS, mobile optimization, JavaScript, PHP, private databases, and video upload. Here are some of the questions you should ask yourself when choosing a free website builder:

Can I optimize my site for mobile devices?

Mobile optimization is an increasingly important factor in customer retention, because mobile browsing on smartphones and tablets is growing. This then affects the Google SERP (search engine results page) rankings: Sites that are not optimized for mobile devices are punished with lower rankings. Most free website builders only offer mobile optimization for premium customers.

Is it possible to create in HTML5?

HTML5 is the latest version of the classic text language format used for content presentation on the web. If you want your website to stand out, it's important to make sure your free website builder of choice offers HTML5. Some don't.

Can I customize my HTML doc with CSS?

CSS is a language that takes care of the style in your HTML text document. It describes how HTML elements are displayed, with regards to color, size, font, and more. Customizing using CSS is how you can make your website look individual.

Does the free website builder offer JavaScript?

Along with HTML and CSS, JavaScript is the third part of the holy trinity of web design. Just as with the other two, being able to edit with JavaScript will make a big difference to the final presentation of your website.

Can I embed videos?

Multimedia features like videos are crucial for retaining customers and offering visitors added value. Some free website builders don't let you embed videos unless you pay for a premium package.

Is it possible to use PHP?

PHP is usually embedded into HTML code or combined with pre-existing templates or frameworks. It adds further flexibility to your code and allows you to personalize content. Some free website builders don't offer PHP editing free of charge.

Can I easily connect to a database?

Free website builders often feature their own database for you to use, but this is normally restricted to only a small amount of data storage. To extend your storage options, you'll need to either connect to an external database or pay for an upgrade.

Social media widgets Connect your social media accounts like Facebook and Instagram. Integrate videos with YouTube and Vimeo or upload and manage images from your Dropbox and Google Drive accounts.Close

Social media widgets Connect your social media accounts like Facebook and Instagram. Integrate videos with YouTube and Vimeo or upload and manage images from your Dropbox and Google Drive accounts.Close

Business widgets Easy drag and drop business widgets like customer reviews and online scheduling.Close

Social media widgets Connect your social media accounts like Facebook and Instagram. Integrate videos with YouTube and Vimeo or upload and manage images from your Dropbox and Google Drive accounts.Close

Business widgets Easy drag and drop business widgets like customer reviews and online scheduling.Close

Multilingual

Tailored content Create individual experiences for your visitors: pop-ups based on location, device, or time e.g. for holidays or special events, and for first-time or returning visitors.Close

SEO tutorials Analyze your website and learn how to get more visitors from Google and other search engines.Close

Email marketing tool Send up to 300 emails with real-time campaign statistics and professional mobile-optimized templates.Close

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Free website builder

FAQ - Frequently asked questions about the topic

What are free website builders?

Free website builder software is exactly that: readily-available online software that can be used to build a website free of charge. These free site builders operate within
your browser, meaning you don't need to download any software onto your computer – you can simply log in online to design and run your page. Free website builder software tools are designed to make it as straightforward and cheap as possible to create a simple website for beginners. Some of their typical features include:

WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor so you know how your website will look

Drag and drop tools and other step-by-step solutions with pre-made text boxes and images to help simplify the process

No prior experience of programming required

No installation necessary – built-in external databases for storage

Simple, intuitive functionality

Free of charge to create and run

Am I able to upgrade the website builder to a more advanced version later?

Package upgrades of this website creator can be made at any time. There is also the possibility of upgrading your website builder to a more advanced version of our website builder and create even more pages for your website. Try out our website builder and decide for yourself.

Questions?

We'd be happy to help you choose the right product or provide support for existing customers.